Newspaper Clippings
by 9mouse9
Summary: A collection of short stories, one-shots, drabbles, poems and other such writings that revolve entirely around Newsies!
1. Poems (1)

Title: Poems (1)

Era/AU: Canon Era

Word Count: 205

* * *

**Davey.**

_He's helping to lead, and he never thought he could be_

_shouting motivations and praises_

_to a group of ragtag newsboys_

_trying to make a change._

_Shouting motivations and praises -_

_it isn't as hard as he thought it'd be._

_Trying to make a change -_

_it's strangely empowering._

_It isn't as hard as he thought it'd be._

_To a group of ragtag newsboys,_

_it's strangely empowering._

_He's helping to lead, and he never thought he could be._

* * *

**Race.**

_Drags from long cigars,_

_betting down at the racetrack,_

_King of all New York._

* * *

**Romeo.**

_A lover of romance and love and the like,_

_flirting incorrigibly on the street,_

_continuing on even through the strike,_

_hoping that one day his soulmate he'll meet._

_Though he gets teased by others in the lodge,_

_he keeps at his endless romantic pursuits._

_Someday, the teasing he'll manage to dodge _

_when, at last, someone's feelings for _him _will take root._

_At the day's end, he is proud of himself_

_for though his flirting might have got him nowhere_

_at least now, he's got some stories to tell_

_and the way _he_ tells them, no others compare._

_In the future, he'll meet his Juliet._

_But as of right now? Alas! Not yet._

* * *

**A/N: Hello! Recently (at least, fairly recently - I wrote the first two a while back and Valentine's inspired me to write the third) I decided to try writing poetry again, and wrote these! I was going to wait until after I finished By Wortds the Mind is Winged, but that will probably take a while, so I figured I might as well put these out. I hope you like them, and if you did, I'd really appreciate if you could review and let me know what you liked about it! Thanks,**

**-mouse :)**


	2. April Fool's Day :)

Title: April Fool's Day :)

Era/AU: Modern AU

Word Count: 612

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**Romeo. (ft. Mush and his puns)**

"Mush, what on _Earth_ are you doin'?" I asked as I came back into our room to see him writing what looked like a list of puns.

"Well, I'm writin' a list o' puns."

"Why?"

"Romeo, you realize April Fool's day is _today_, right?"

"It's six in the mornin'!"

"And Racer's probably been up since five."

I chuckled. "Mush, I can assure you that Race has not been up since five." I gestured to his list. "And why are you makin' puns anyway? April Fool's is about pranking people, not tellin' 'em bad jokes."

"A prank in the dictionary is defined as a mischievous act. A list ain't all there is to it." He grinned slyly.

"Alright then," I said, leaning back on the bed. "Whaddya plan to do with this list o' yours?"

"I'm hidin' the jokes. I've already hid one in the fridge, behind some pictures – I hid one in your phone case. Er, I guess it ain't really hidden."

"What?" I reached over and picked up my phone. Sure enough, a small piece of paper was behind my phone. I picked it up and removed the paper, unfolding it with unnecessary caution.

_The invention of the shovel was groundbreaking, but the invention of the wheel was what really got things rolling._

"…This is terrible."

"Don'tyou mean..._tear-able_?" Mush asked as he tore another joke off his list and folded it up. He laughed. "And no one'll see 'em coming."

"When you asked Jack how he slept and he said 'On me back, Mush', you laughed about it for days." I grinned at the memory. "I'm pretty sure they'll know it's you."

"Maybe…but that don't mean they'll be expectin' it! I hid some in the Jacobs' apartment, and in Jack and Katherine's, and all over the rest of our dorm. People are gonna be wakin' up to puns under their pillows!"

"How...how did you get them into those apartments? How long have you been working? _How did you get in?"_

A comedian never reveals his secrets..._And_ I've been working on this since last night."

I shrugged. _Someone_ might think that was a good prank. And it wasn't the worst, of course – not like last year when Davey had tried to prank us with the fake bugs. Those were just about a handful of poorly-drawn creepy-crawlies that he put in random places. No one was scared, but we did have a good laugh about it later.

"Hey, Romeo?"

"Yeah?"

"When does a joke become a dad joke?"

I rolled my eyes but decided to humor him. "I don't know, when?"

He grinned. "When it becomes _apparent_."

"Oh my _gosh_, Mush, that was horrible!" I laughed. This was going to be an interesting April Fool's for sure.

* * *

**Albert**.

_He's been planning these pranks since early March,_

_k__eeping them more or less secret_

_After all, pranking, to him, is an art_

_an__d that's how he intends to keep it_

_But somehow it seems awful convenient_

_th__at the one never fooled is Race_

_To Albert, keeping secrets is no great achievement -_

_l__ying to his best friend should take that place_.

\\_(ツ)/

* * *

**Elmer**.

_Elmer is usually the one being pranked, but he doesn't mind. It gives him a chance to laugh at himself, and everyone else to laugh with him. Sometimes he catches on – he's not as blissfully ignorant as they think he is – but he won't say anything about it. After all, it isn't like anyone's being harmed. So Elmer lets the newsies have their fun and smiles to himself afterwards. Besides, every now and then he gets back at them. They never see it coming. Because who'd suspect little old Elmer to give the newsies a taste of their own medicine?_

* * *

**A/N: Tried my hand at a short story, another poem, and a drabble! I've never actually done a drabble before - it was an interesting challenge. I hope you enjoyed this April Fool's chapter of Newspaper Clippings!****-mouse :)**


	3. Origin Stories (Part One?)

Title: Origin Stories (Part One?)

Era/AU: Canon Era

Word Count: 879

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**Race.**

"How did _you_ become a newsie, Racer?"

"Me?" He shrugged. "I can hardly remember at this point. I'se been here most of my life."

"Well, that's a boring origin story if I ever heard one."

"Les - !" Davey started to say, but Race waved a hand.

"Nah, Shortstop's right. That _is_ a pretty boring origin story, ain't it?" Race turned around and called Jack over. "Hey, you've been with me for a while, right? Maybe you could try joggin' my memory of how I became a newsie?"

"I could try," Jack said as he approached. "It was a dark an' stormy night..."

"Woah, wait, why are ya startin' this off like a horror story?"

"'Cause it _was_ a dark an' stormy night. You came here late at night in the pourin' rain!"

"If ya say so..."

"It's true! Anyway, as I was sayin'..."

_It was a dark and stormy night. Our leader at the time went an' answered the door 'cause you _would not stop knockin'._ Only a few of us were actually sleepin' anyway – the thunder was keepin' us up. A bunch of us looked over to see what all the fuss was about, and there you were, soakin' wet. I recognized you immediately._

Jack turned to Les here. "A few weeks before, I had seen him beggin' on the street and, out of the goodness of my nine-year-old heart, invited him to become a newsie."

"That ain't what happened!" Race protested quickly.

"I thought ya didn't remember," Jack smugly replied. "But alright, whaddya think went down when we met?"

"You tried to sell me a paper, and I said I couldn't buy it because I had no money. No beggin' involved."

"Ah, right, and then I invited you to become a newsie so you could make more money. Okay, if that's how you remember it...now where was I?"

"You recognized me immediately."

"Yeah." _Anyway, our leader agreed to let you stay the night, since it was late and rainin' and you was probably about to get pneumonia. And he said you could sell papes with us the next day, and if you stayed out o' trouble you could become a newsie._

_The next day, we all walked to the gates to buy our papers, but you didn't have any money, so -_

"So Weasel let me have fifty papes for free because I was just so darn adorable." Race grinned cheekily.

"That definitely ain't what happened," Jack said, chuckling.

"Yeah, that doesn't seem very likely," Davey added.

Les nodded. "I agree with Davey and Jack. That can't have been what happened, or else _I_ woulda gotten free papes for all of us on my first day."

Race's grin widened. "So you're all gangin' up on me now, huh? I thought you wanted an interesting origin story!"

"An interesting one, not a fabricated one."

"Oh, I see how it is. Shortstop here don't want any _fabrication_. Okay, okay, tell it like it is, Jack."

I_ had to pay for your papes, but Oscar and Morris were a lot nicer back then, so it wasn't too big a deal._

"Nuh-uh! They was always jerks."

"There might be more to them than you think," Jack said enigmatically. "But I digress."

_The day went pretty average as far as days go. I was showin' you the ropes, you was makin' jokes about everything, and we was just sellin' papes all day, which is, you know, what newsies do._

"And then we got jumped!"

"You got jumped?" Les said excitedly – perhaps more excitedly than he should have considering that situation could have ended very badly.

At least, it could have if they'd actually been jumped. Race, Davey and Jack all made eye contact to make sure the others knew that them getting jumped was, in fact, a fabrication. Two defenseless kids Les' age getting jumped by older and meaner boys was not something that would have turned out well at all.

"Yep, we got jumped," Jack said. "But luckily, we'se both very strong."

"Between the two of us," Race said to Les in a stage whisper, "I'se the stronger one."

"In your dreams, Racer."

"The only thing I'se dreamin' about is a leg o' lamb!" Race retorted, sticking his tongue out.

"Did you get hurt?" asked Davey (who was very obvious about the fact that he knew they were lying - but thankfully Les was too enthralled in the story to notice).

"We got soaked pretty badly," Race said, exchanging an amused glance with Jack.

" - but we soaked 'em worse!"

"And after we'd beaten them up to our satisfaction, I simply smiled at them and they were so in awe of the fact that I could be this charming and this menacing at the same time that they ran away!"

"Yep, that's exactly what happened." Jack said, nodding solemnly.

"Woah," said Les. "So did you become a newsie right away? I feel like getting jumped counts as getting into trouble."

"It does...but our leader was so impressed by these two nine-year-old kids being so brave and cool that he let Race become a newsie – and he didn't kick me out. And, well, the rest is history."

"Now, that's an origin story!" Les exclaimed.

"Indeed, it is," Race said as he winked.

* * *

**A/N: So today is National Superhero Day, and I figured what better way to celebrate by writing some origin stories? I was planning on doing a "hero" and a "villain", but the Delancey brothers' story just was not turning out the way I wanted it to, so if I put that one out it will be later. I might make a part two to this if I can figure out the right words, but for now, I hope you enjoyed Race's (sort of) newsie origin story! I debated changing Jack's part to be Albert's, but I think I like this one more. Please let me know what you think! **

**-mouse :)**

* * *

**_A response to AetherlightGirl: Thank you! I'm glad you liked the story! And the duck pun was appreciated as well ;)_**


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